Computer hangs indefinitely with apply material or mirror command

Rhino Rhino for Mac
1

When applying a material the computer hangs indefinitely (spinning beach ball) or at least takes a very long time. It also often takes a long time with the mirror object command. The only way out is to force quit and redo the command. The operation will usually complete instantly after the restart.
If I isolate the object and apply the material in a new file it applies immediately and then I can paste it back into the model.
This has been happening for as long as I can remember, at least since the new render engine was introduced. Current version 5.1. Mac OSX10.10.5.
Apologies if there is already a post on this topic but haven’t been able to track one down.

2

What make and model Mac do you have? Can you screenshot the About this mac>Overview dialog?

Do you also have a sample 3dm that shows the problem (the simpler the better) and any texture maps used in the materials you’re assigning that you can post here? It sounds like it’s intermittently hanging but getting a reproducible case and the hardware info will help narrow in on why you’re seeing this.

3

Thanks Brian, The problem appears to be memory related. I doesn’t occur immediately in a new file but becomes progressively worse as the model becomes more complex. The default material in Rhino nearly always renders very quickly. Texture maps don’t appear to be a contributing factor. Copy and paste is also very slow as the model progresses. I doubt that you will reproduce the problem if I send a small file. Most of my models are between 150 and 220 MB.

Computer specs enclosed.

4

Thanks for the computer specs. Can you share a file and the steps needed to reproduce the hang by uploading a 3dm to www.rhino3d.com/upload ? You can leave the recipient as tech@mcneel.com just reference this forum link in the notes too.

I’d like to get a reproducible case for the developers to look at.

5

Thanks for the file sent into tech. I was unable to reproduce an indefinite hang applying a material via drag and drop in the material editor or when using Mirror. Both actions happen pretty much instantly here using Rhino for Mac 5B161 on OSX 10.11. One thought is that the GPU/graphics card may be involved. Does the hang happen if you’re not in Rendered display mode? Try switching the viewport display mode in the material editor to wireframe to test this theory please. Let’s continue the discussion here if you don’t mind in case this helps other users.

@dan @marlin , any other thoughts?

6

Thanks Brian, yes the graphics card explanation sounds logical - especially considering the long time to apply materials. Is the graphic card type critical and if so can you recommend one I should use?

Thanks,
T

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Let me know if Wireframe display in the material editor viewport changed anything please. Here’s a collection of info on GPUs from users that we’ve collected. http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/rhino5videocards

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Brian, I can confirm that working in wireframe makes no difference to the hang problem. Having read through the information on Graphics cards I think I will try a Nvidia card as they seem to generally get better reports than my ATI Radeon 5750.

Regards, T

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The information about video cards in the link above applies only to MS Windows and is not relevant for Macs running OS X. I’m getting a copy of the model you submitted so I can investigate this.

10

Thanks Marlin, I’m pretty sure this problem only started when the new rendering engine came in last year because I made a post about it at the time. No one replied on the topic of the hang time so I guess I’m the only person having this problem. The hang problem pretty much always occurs after working on a model for a while. The problem with slow paste of a copied object and the slow mirror command is not quite so persistent. All three problems are always resolved after a force quit and restart.

11

Marlin, I am more and more thinking this problem might be related to the memory or cache in my computer. I have enclosed a file which is a component from a much larger file (the Flying Fish model).
For some hours I tried to radius the edges of the solid trying every method I could think of including just using surfaces rather than a solid.
During this time the computer was slow to save but it never “hung” like it does with an apply material command.
Eventually I quit Rhino and reopened the file. I got a clean fillet on the solid immediately.

Hope this helps to sort out the source of the problem. The component is enclosed isolated from the model.

Regards, Tony.
Extrusion for radius.3dm (380 KB)

12

Your description seems to indicate a memory leak in Mac Rhino. I do regularly check for memory leaks and I don’t know of any at the moment, but it is certainly possible that some particular command has a problem.

You said that this happens “after a while”. It would be helpful to know how long this is. Are we talking minutes, or hours, or even days?

Use Activity Monitor (in the Applications/Utilities folder) to watch Rhino’s total memory usage. What is the memory usage after you first load your model? What is the memory usage after five minutes? What is the memory usage when Rhino starts slowing down? Close your model without quitting Rhino. What is the memory usage then?

If there is a memory leak, we need to somewhat duplicate what you are doing to find the command or operation that is the culprit. What commands are you running after starting Rhino until it becomes show? I realize that this is a pretty difficult question to answer, but we need some idea of where to look for this issue.